Various production machines presently are available in the shrimp processing industry for processing shrimp. In a conventional production operation, shrimp are transported to various work stations where the shrimp shell is first cut and then the cut shell and vein are removed. Shrimp often are transported to the work stations by depositing the shrimp on a plurality of trays located on a conveyor means which travels at intermittent speeds past the shrimp processing equipment. A shrimp to be processed is removed from a tray and retained in a clamp assembly which delivers the shrimp to a plurality of work stations which remove the shell and devein the shrimp.
An example of a conventional production machine employing intermittent shrimp delivery operation is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,751,766. Six clamping stations located on a rotary drive wheel are operated in timed relation to the intermittent conveyor system whereby shrimp are removed automatically from the conveyor trays and deposited and maintained in a clamping assembly for delivery to the shrimp processing stations. Following deveining of the shrimp and removal of the shell, the processed shrimp are released from the clamping assemblies.
While shrimp processing equipment presently used is satisfactory, it has been found that, in some instances, the use of a shrimp conveyor system traveling at an intermittent speed in association with the six clamping stations creates a number of undesirable problems. For example, it has been found that the intermittent conveyor movement presents difficulties to an operator who manually loads shrimp on to the conveyor trays. Specifically, an operator generally must hand load and orient the shrimp on a conveyor tray during the dwell or stop portion of the intermittently moving conveyor. The dwell time has been estimated to be approximately seventy five percent of a total cycle. Unfortunately, if an operator attempts to load shrimp while the conveyor is accelerating in the course of being indexed, the conveyor speed is too great such that it is extremely difficult to hand load shrimp on the conveyor trays. Thus, if an operator falls out of synchronization with the dwell period on the intermittently moving conveyor, it is difficult to recover such that shrimp are not deposited in a number of trays before the operator is again able to be in synchronization with the conveyor movement.
Further, when utilizing shrimp processing equipment employing a conveyor operating at intermittent speeds, six shrimp clamping assemblies are utilized to transport shrimp to the various shrimp processing stations. The clamping assemblies are located on a rotary drive unit, being located at approximately 60.degree. intervals from one another. In some instances, a shrimp is not properly lodged in a clamping assembly and the shrimp inadvertently falls out of the clamping assembly. Often, shrimp which fall out of the clamping stations do not fall clear of the machines but instead becomes lodged in the machine hardware.
It is desired to have a shrimp processing machine which obviates the problems presently found with shrimp loading and processing equipment presently available.